An Australian electoral geography of racial prejudice: does racism matter?

Abstract

This paper estimates racial prejudice levels in Australian Commonwealth Electorates to test whether racial prejudice is evenly distributed geographically and if the geography of racial prejudice has implications for the structure of power in Australian society. More negative attitudes to indigenous Australians and asylum seekers arriving by boat and support for the war on terrorism have declined in recent years. The relationship between electorate marginality and the distribution of racial prejudice may hold answers for issue politics tinged with racial overtones. The Australian Election Study and Census are analysed using Multilevel-regression and Post-stratification (MrP) to produce electorate level estimates of racial prejudice when are then used to test a series of hypotheses.

Author

Luke Mansillo (Presenter), University of SydneyLuke Mansillo is a PhD Candidate at the University of Sydney. He holds a BA in political science with first class honours and Master of Social Research, from the Australian National University, Canberra. Luke has a keen interest in electoral studies and quantitative research methods.

Luke is the 2015-2016 Australian Political Studies Association (APSA) postgraduate representative. He is an active member of APSA and the Australian Society for Quantitative Political Science (ASQPS).